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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27556903">Void Unturned</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/American_Psycho/pseuds/Uncarved'>Uncarved (American_Psycho)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>And also hopelessly in love with harry, Aurors, Azkaban, BAMF Hermione Granger, BDSM, Blood Magic, Bondage, Bottom Draco Malfoy, Boys in Chains, Cursed Harry Potter, Dark Fantasy, Dark Harry Potter, Dom/sub, Draco Malfoy is Clueless About Muggle Things, Endgame Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Eventual Romance, F/M, Flogging, Hallucinations, Harry Potter is a Little Shit, Heavy Angst, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter), Minor Character Death, POV Alternating, Porn With Plot, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Rough Sex, Sadistic Harry Potter, Sexual Slavery, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Smitten Draco Malfoy, Soul Bond, Spanking, Sub Draco Malfoy, Too bad he is going crazy, Top Harry Potter, Torture, Violence, Virgin Draco Malfoy, Wandless Magic, Whipping, Wordcount: 50.000-100.000, Young Tom Riddle, sometimes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:54:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,661</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27556903</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/American_Psycho/pseuds/Uncarved</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Harry Potter helped him out, Draco had thought it was out of the goodness of his heart. Surely it wasn't a stretch to think so in Potter's case. But he had no idea what he had just signed up for.</p><p>And Potter had a friend, a problem, and maybe a crush. The friend had a solution, a charm and to Draco's certainty, some very sinister plans.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy/Original Male Character(s), Harry Potter/Original Male Character(s), Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Empty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Ok anyone whose read A Caricature of the Void is probably groaning at the story starting again but it wasn't working for me as it was, the pacing was pretty bad and so were the characterizations in a few places. Still I don't like leaving stories unfinished so I rewrote it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fenrir hadn’t gotten the chance. In the midst of white light and broken bannisters, his body was barely moving. And then there was crash. On top of his head, Professor Trelawney hurled a crystal ball, frail arms giving it all. The shreds were buried in his skin, poking through his eyes. He clenched them shut and flailed and screamed.</p><p>Of course, he had seen none of it. Not this well anyway. There was smoke and light and death eaters that he chased and who chased him. He hadn’t stood stationary for a moment during the battle. He could merely catch a glimpse of the deaths. But his brain supplied the specifics, in sharp resolution, lingering over details he could have never captured in that moment. He knew he was filling them in himself, conjuring up the imagery of punctured eye sockets, glass and distorted faces, they were his creation.</p><p>When Greyback was dead for the fifth time. He moved to Lavender. She fell from the balcony, screaming. She had landed on the stone bloody; it’s wasn’t sharp enough to pierce through her but it connected with her back hard enough that her torso arched up while her limbs, alive enough to move, slowly edged away from her body. They seemed to want to carry her somewhere else and escape. But she didn’t move an inch. Her eyes were detached from her movement, staring into the void, mouth hanging open, hair dirtied. Something bashed her head then, hard, and it splattered everywhere and the limbs stopped.</p><p>The second time, her landing was quick, this time she screamed for help, <em>at him</em> for help. So, when the blow on the head came, it was louder. Every time she clung to life and the desperation peaked, he snatched it away from her. Raw urgency halted with one hard hit. She begged for help, then for her life, he didn’t know who the perpetrator was, but he stood close... close enough to spectate, maybe engage even.</p><p>After the third, fourth and fifth time, it exhausted him, so he searched his memory for more.</p><p>   “Harry?” The cement wall of the rooftop was cold, it was a windy night. He was on top of the hotel building. Yellow light followed her from the all as she climbed up the stairs. She shut the door behind her. The gleam in her black sequin dress faded. “You were almost getting good handling the press.”</p><p>   “Seems like Ron is better cut for that kind of work.” Harry said, the images in his mind washing away.</p><p>   “Why did you come here, Harry?” She asked, the words drenched in sympathy.</p><p>   “It’s not going away, Mione’. No matter what I do its just—” he turned around. She came to him and held his upper arm.</p><p>   “Calm down first hmm? Stop thinking about it, just for now?”</p><p>He did. He looked at the sky. The dim sheet of glitter and the faint moon. The breeze tapped gently at his neck and hands. The low wall of the roof top pressed into the tiny patterns on his fingertips as he held on to it.</p><p>The thoughts had poured out. He looked at the girl by his side, hoping the love and gratitude would come rushing back to him, he fished for emotions. There was only emptiness, emptiness that threatened to collapse on itself if he didn’t find himself in time.</p><p>He shut his eyes and sighed. “Something is wrong with me.”</p><p>   “You are stressed Harry, that is all it is.”</p><p>He eyed her exasperatedly. ‘No, it’s not.”</p><p>    “Harry, few months ago, Hogwarts was a warzone and you were fighting Voldemort. Of course, its traumatizing, I think about it too you know, a lot” she said, to her it was moment of reflection, firmly set in the frame of an aftermath. For him..</p><p>    “Hermione look-” He impatiently clenched his fists. If he told her, they would have to admit there was a problem but despite his own insistence, he was reluctant to do it. “I saw Nagini”<br/>
 he punctuated each word with individual emphasis as if in the hope that she would understand without further explanation.</p><p>Her face bore a frown. “What?” He bit his lips and looked away, shuffling in his place. “Harry what do you mean you saw her?”</p><p>   “I was having another flashback when I was on my bed and I saw her at the corner, she was crawling by the post but when I got up to look, she was gone. I couldn’t find her again, but I know what I saw. It was her.”</p><p>   “Why would you see her now? the Horcruxes are gone and Voldemort is dead—”</p><p>   “I don’t know. And to tell you the truth, I haven’t been feeling like myself lately.” His eyes cast down. She stepped closer. “I haven’t been feeling anything lately.”</p><p>Hermione wrapped her arm around his shoulders and whispered. “Harry, I think you are confused.”</p><p>   “No!” He moved back. “You don’t understand, even since the funeral it is as if I can’t like anyone the way I used to. I don’t remember what everything was like before.” And he got louder, his words, desperate. “Every time I try to play Quidditch or go out or talk to you or Ron, I feel nothing. It is as if I have memories of a bunch of strangers that some else shoved inside my mind or I wouldn’t even have known who any of you were. I try to remind myself about how happy I was when I came to Hogwarts for the first time, when I met you and Ron, when Molly sent me the jumper on Christmas or Sirius or Lupin or Dumbledore, but all I get it is this prickly hollow feeling and none of it seems to matter.” He ended by kicking at the air.</p><p>Hermione hugged him, soothingly rubbing his shoulders. He breathed hard, slowly the tense muscles of his body relaxed. “Hey we will look into it ok?” she stepped back to look at him. If there is anything wrong, we will make things alright again.” She said. “Let’s go inside, tomorrow you tell me exactly what’s going on.”</p><p>He nodded. She was helping him. She was a friend, if only, his brain remembered it. So, they left. The golden and brown of the ballroom engulfed them again, men in suites not unlike his own and women also suited up or in long flowing dresses and trinkets. Kingsley Shacklebolt along with Scrimgeour, Robards and other Aurors that Harry was briefly acquainted with spoke to Eduardo Eleanor, the host of the charity event and the new head of the Auror department.</p><p>Eduardo had humble origins; his parents were both muggle-borns from a lowly part of London who were killed during the first Wizarding war. Now he went about speaking to a journalist from the Prophet about the atrocities of war and with the protectiveness of the messiah. He said he was fearful for people because death eaters were still on the run.</p><p>   He hated the purebloods; it was because of him that Aurors had raided mansions and detained anyone who possessed dark magic artifacts or was suspected to have affiliations with the dark lord. All the death eaters caught had received life in Azkaban, trickier cases like Narcissa and Draco Malfoy were up for trial.</p><p>Ron from the other corner of the room shook Skeeter’s hand with uncharacteristic elegance and made his way to them. “Did you see that mate?” he asked excitedly. “She said people wanted to know about me!”</p><p>Hermione smiled. “You saved the world Ronald, of course they want to know about you.”</p><p>   “You should speak about how you killed Voldemort Harry; good press can take you places.”</p><p>   “I think I am getting enough attention already.” He had not said a word to the reporters about it. ‘I hope the best for the people and that we all recover; it was a hard task and I am glad it’s over.’ That was it. Nothing about Eduardo and his harsh, borderline cruel handling of death eaters, the ongoing debate of bringing the Dementors in use again or the Malfoys’ trial. There had been incessant questioning. The people wanted his word on everything from politics to whether he was still with Ginevra Weasely. One hard inquiry had been about the Aurors searching through the Slytherin Dorm room and interrogating students who weren’t taken to holding cells immediately after the battle of Hogwarts.</p><p>***</p><p>   “He is an ass” Hermione said as the trio walked down the road. Ron and Harry shared smiled and looked back at her. “I mean it”</p><p>   “Come on Hermione, someone in the ministry is finally checking up on the blood supremacists, why would you have a problem with that? Besides I like the guy.” Ron shrugged.</p><p>She stopped walking. “Have you guys read The Wizarding World News; they are barely feeding the prisoners”</p><p>   “The death eaters you mean? Are you serious?”</p><p>   “Look all I am saying is, the ministry should keep an ethical standard. The death eaters deserve to be punished but not starved, some of them went to school with us, Ron, they at least deserve a chance at redemption.” she argued. Her boyfriend was not convinced. “And the deal with Dementors is completely mental, they can’t bring them back! Don’t you remember what they were like?”</p><p>   “I wouldn’t mind them as long as they only feed on the death eaters.” He said bearing shallow thoughtful look.</p><p>   “Ugh”</p><p>Harry followed the conversation until Hermione held both their hands and apparated them back in front of Hogwarts. It was two hours to midnight. Leaving the school around this time was usually not permissible. But Professor McGonagall had to cede to an invitation sent from the Ministry.</p><p>The wards let them in and they went back to the common room. ‘Quantonight’ was the new password. The door creaked open; cement gushed down the fall. Hogwarts was mostly repaired, some of the effort involved in fixing it had their own.</p><p>Although they went back to the castle every other day, the trio had kept their distance from the wizarding world. They had the opportunity to become socialites, everyone important wanted to be on their good sides, Hogwarts had adjusted to them accordingly but to Harry, if anything, it was tedious.</p><p>Instead, being strangers at muggle bars and driving down the Vegas Strip in America had turned out to be a lot more fun. They had spent their nights at Rock concerts. Harry had explored his newfound passion for music and learned playing guitar from Hermione. They often sat down in the backyard of the burrow and spent their evenings singing together. Harry and Ron had hit the gym to get a head start in the Auror training and even assisted the Aurors on death-eater hunts. The latter however had been a short endeavor. Way too often, Harry found his brain...<em>wandering.</em></p><p>He went to bed, hoping he would fall asleep and not to whatever he fell into every night. Distinctly, he heard Sean ask how the day had gone and then he was somewhere else.</p><p>***</p><p>He woke up with a mild headache, this was a part of his mornings now. Because he barely ever slept these days, he had started wearing contact lenses at night. When his eyes wondered, he could count the depressions in the texture of the ceiling. Or the folds in Adrian’s blanket. Or anything. He had found that counting kept him away from his thoughts better than staring into the blur did.</p><p>He dressed for the day and met up with Ron on their way to the Great hall/</p><p>   "Oi Harry?" Ron munched on a cheese stick licking the residue off his fingers "When do you got your class?"</p><p>   "Half an hour. I wonder how George's going to do"</p><p>   "Don't worry man, he will be great"</p><p>After McGonagall became the headmistress, they had vigorously looked for a transfiguration Professor, but none quiet came up to the standard. When George was first approached, he had outright denied, deeming the joke shop more important. So, when he showed up at the office one afternoon while Hogwarts was getting repaired McGonagall, hadn’t expecting it.</p><p>  "I will do it" he'd said, simply. "I will do the job; Ron is ready to work at the joke shop in the evening"</p><p>Since Fred's funeral he hadn't fully returned to acting like himself again. Every now and then he would crack a joke, laugh and then nostalgically stare into nothing. He decided to just stop. Harry hoped the job would distract him.</p><p>Eventually, Ron headed off for Charms and he went down to the dungeons for Potions. It was recommended by the Auror training program. He could have probably gotten in without it but wanted to follow the guidelines and feel normal—less like a war hero.  He was trying to remember what Slughorn had said they would do today when several sharp noises interrupted his train of thought. He moved to and peaked from the edge of the adjacent hallway.  Cormac was shoving Malfoy backwards, his wand raised up to the other boy’s jaw. Malfoy’s hand clenched tightly around his own but he did not raise it.</p><p>Cormac sneered at him, trying to wind him up. Malfoy grinded his teeth together, fixing his hands against the wall as if to retrain them from attacking Cormac.</p><p>Cormac waited, shifting his stare between Malfoy’s hesitantly closed hand and the unsubstantiated threat in his eyes. When nothing happened, he stepped back. “See that Malfoy, that is your place now”</p><p>Malfoy turned to leave but Cormac pulled him back by the shoulder.</p><p>   “Alright, stop” Harry stepped in their way.</p><p> Cormac pouted and shoved Malfoy to the side.  </p><p>   “Come on man, don’t you want him out of here?”</p><p>   “Just leave him alone, Cormac” He said. The only class this hallway lead to Potions so they had probably got into a fight on their way there.</p><p>   “Whatever” Cormac withdrew his wand and walked past Harry. Malfoy looked furious. He pocketed his wand and patted down his robes like cleaning off the humiliation from himself. He narrowed his eyes when he caught Harry staring.</p><p>   “Waiting for someone to carry you away Potter?”  </p><p>   “Well you’re welcome” Harry replied.</p><p>Malfoy rolled his eyes and began to leave, stopping again when Harry seemed to follow him.</p><p>   “Potions?”</p><p>   “Oh, for fuck’s sake” Malfoy spun and around and continued in his path.</p><p>Harry’s savior complex did not bother him like it used to. Perhaps then intervening to help was a conditioned response for him. And maybe it was also because he didn’t spite Malfoy like before, if he ever had. Harry didn’t know. Emotions were hard to remember without actually feeling them, or express.</p><p>He entered the class almost at the same time as Malfoy who was walking very briskly, more to avoid Harry then get to class on time. Harry entered the door after him, stopping briefly for Slughorn to acknowledge and let him in. “Quiet in time Harry, today we will be brewing faux floo”</p><p>It came in liquid varieties as well?  Harry nodded and scanned the tables for an empty spot but Malfoy had sat down on the only one with unoccupied seats. He looked around once more hoping some seventh-year fan would offer him to sit but no one dared to cut Slughorn.</p><p>‘Fine’ He stomped over to the Malfoy’s table and dragged out a seat for himself, sitting opposite him.</p><p>   “As some of you may know, Faux floo is a potion that hardens into crumbles under the moonlight so that it actives in the fire place”.</p><p>Right, he had almost warned up the idea of using a spray bottle in the floo network. </p><p>Slughorn walked across the room “Faux floo was among the earliest brewed potions which, although not as safe or fast as the modern floo powder was an early prototype for the more efficient version we use today. So-” He stopped and spun around. “What is the first step in making it?” Several students including Malfoy raised their hand.</p><p>Harry leaned his cheek on his hand and began following the movement of the Professor’s wand. It scribbled the instructions on the board as a student dictated it, every now and then crossing something out with a scratchy noise if the Professor said the answer was wrong. Once all the steps had been collected, they had a followable manual on the board and one lesson had gone by.</p><p>Forty minutes more. The thought did not fill Harry with joy. At least arithmetic with Hermione wouldn’t drag as much.</p><p>   “Alright pair up.” Slughorn ordered, unlocking the storeroom’s door. “I am hoping everyone jotted down the points because you all will be relying on your own notes to brew this potion.” Someone groaned. Slughorn turned to Susan Bones who had apparently been behind the noise. “You will be submitting your own set of instructions along with the history and evolution of the potions included in your seventh year N.E.W. Ts syllabus, Miss Bones. If you aren’t prepared for that, I suggest you skip this exam”</p><p>    “I am sorry sir” She replied sheepishly.</p><p>Slughorn did not have the kind of scorn in his voice as Snape did but he did command discipline just as efficiently.</p><p>Harry looked around for anyone who wasn’t already teamed up or not going towards the storeroom. Malfoy waited as well, apparently not wanting to socialize either.</p><p>   “Are you going to come or what?” Malfoy asked from across the table.</p><p>   “What your little snake’s den abandon you?”</p><p>   “Fuck off Potter”</p><p>Harry raised his eyes without changing his posture. Malfoy pursed his lips, not wanting to look hesitant but giving it away nonetheless. Harry continued his unimpressed inspection of the blond without much regard to how he reacted. “Go get the ingredients.” He said finally.</p><p>   “Really Potter?”</p><p>Harry feigned thoughtfulness and then nodded. “Yeah”</p><p>Malfoy snarled but then surprisingly went to the storeroom.</p><p>He was avoiding trouble then. In a Daily Prophet interview Eduardo had alluded to seizing the Malfoy properties and freezing their assets. A zine that Hermione religiously followed had speculated that Malfoy and some other underage death eaters and also spent the summer break in holding cells.</p><p>Was he allowed to continue school until his trial then? Harry could ask if Malfoy ever felt chatty.</p><p>In the meanwhile, Harry wished the repeating students had been give separate lessons. There were so few of them that he usually had to work with seventh graders. A few of his classes were with Hermione and one with Ron on Friday but other than that, he usually paired up with other Gryffindors like Neville or Dean Thomas. Now that he had been late, they were already working with Ginny and Anthony Goldstein respectively.</p><p>Malfoy returned with a cauldron and propped it down on the table with a thud. “There” The packets of ingredients were inside it. Malfoy sat down staring at harry intently. “What now?”</p><p>   “Asking for instructions Malfoy? Revolutionary.”</p><p>Malfoy shook his head and pulled the cauldron to his side. “You know what, I will just work alone”</p><p>   "Assemble the ingredients." Harry ordered, making his tone monotonous in a moment. Malfoy raise an eyebrow, looking insulted like before. Harry smiled. He felt a small kind of excitement pooling inside his throat like it did he was immersed in one of his fantasies. Even though it was weak, like a tickle or almost a discomfort, Harry found it to be much better than the usual empty.</p><p>   “What did you say Potter?” Malfoy exclaimed.</p><p>Several heads turned. Katie Bell scowled at Malfoy from a distance. Some close by seventh years began whispering among themselves. Harry was extremely popular among the newcomers, not to mention, people did not ignore forgo the opportunity to harass ex death eaters, especially as they could not retaliate while awaiting trial.</p><p>Draco eyed the cautiously and then leaned forward on the table. “Can we just not get this over with already?” He muttered.</p><p>   “Oh, come on Malfoy” Harry said, his own voice unrushed. “You don’t want to be misbehaving now do you? You don’t look like you would do too well in a holding cell”</p><p>Malfoy’s eyes widened, in panic but also in disbelief. He fumbled with the ingredients laid them out on the table. Harry took Draco’s parchment from his side and looked it over. As he had expected, it was more coherent than whatever he had scribbled himself.</p><p>  “Right, first chop up four tentacles from the octopus jar and mix it with an Olibanum base. Stir clockwise thirty times. Add three fluxweed stems, stare anti clockwise for the same amount of time and then once its turns mauve, pour nine spoons of powdered Runespoor fangs.” Harry read, bringing the sheet close to his face where the spidery handwriting was hard to make out. “Looks simple enough.”</p><p>   “As if you know the first thing about making potions” Draco spat.</p><p>  “Keep running that mouth and you will find yourself in Azkaban before this class ends” Potter threatened in a low voice.</p><p>   Draco’s eyes widened again. He immediately busied himself with the jar without another word. Stealing a glance at Potter to find his eyes set on Draco, he sighed and gathered the tentacles on a cutting board. He hadn’t come back to Hogwarts thinking he would be welcomed back. It was the opposite really.</p><p>But patience, and to some extent, even compliance now came easy to him. Between Aurors’ interrogations and hostile judges, he had learned how to minimize damage but never could he have predicted these skills would help him dealing with Potter.</p><p>The git was supposed to be saintlike, forgiving. Suppose he had run out of benevolence too.</p><p> After finishing the tentacles, Draco picked up a brush and began scraping the dirty layer off the fang. This he suffered with. Snape usually let him have prepared ingredients like they were going to be supplied for the NEWTs and when they were not available, his partner usually did things like scraping dirt off of animal teeth.</p><p>   Frustrated, he put the brush down and picked up a double-edged knife with files in between them and stabbed the fang right on its jagged end. It scattered all over his tabled. He scrunched his face in regret.</p><p>   “Oh, for Christ’s sake” Potter agitatedly rubbed his forehead. “It says that you start 'slowly' from the flat side. Can’t you read your own parchment now? It can’t be crushed now, go get another one.”</p><p>   "I don't usually do this stuff, Potter" Draco spat, not being able to hold it back anymore. Several people turned to look at them again. To hell with them</p><p>   "Oh then who does ‘this stuff’ for you Malfoy?”</p><p>   "Crabbe" Draco’s voice dropped at a realization.</p><p>Potter closed his eyes, visibly annoyed. Goyle had been transferred to Durmstrang and Crabbe was, well, dead.</p><p>    "Crabbe hmm?” Potter said, feigning innocence. Draco looked away, already expecting a threat. “Call him then and ask him to do it for you.”</p><p>Draco restlessly looked down at the fragments of bone on his table. “Look” He tried in a small voice.</p><p>   "Go on" Potter insisted.</p><p>“Ugh” He punched the chair on his side and then left for the storeroom.</p><p>Potter eyed him go, still slouching lazily. Draco took another plastic wrap fanged from on the many labelled draws and went back. He tore the plastic off, deciding to be careful with it this time. He ignored a ‘make it quick’ from Potter and bent down on his notes again.</p><p>He corrected his hand movement and finally, the first layer began flaking off. Once bright colored underside was visible, he soaked a brush in the vial of cleansing ointment and coated the fang with it. Then he picked a hammer to crush it, working mechanically to avoid talking to Potter.</p><p>   "You should really not do that" A voice suddenly joined in with easily placeable American accent.</p><p>   “Huh?” Draco looked up to see who it was. A boy with jet-black hair, blue eyes and a Slytherin tie. But Draco hadn’t seen him in the school before.</p><p>  “The hammer is too heavy; you will send it everywhere.”</p><p>  “Ok?”  Draco uncertainly put the hammer down.</p><p> </p><p>   "I am sorry have we met before?” Harry asked the boy momentarily distracted by his appearance. He was dressed in a fitted linen shirt and uniform pants, hair neatly pushed back. Despite his loosened tie and the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, He looked like he belongs on an office show.</p><p>   "We probably haven’t, I am new here." He smiled and extended a hand towards Harry. “Damian Black.”</p><p>Harry shook it back, inhaling spicy perfume. “Wait uh…Black as in…”</p><p>   “Yeah, Freakish evil Death eating Black” Damian completed for him, without dropping the smile. He dragged a textured metal sheet from the equipment’s, rolled the fang underneath it and after a short while the fang lay perfectly powdered. He tapped the metal sheet, let the access drip into the pile and then put it down. “I was working with Bulstrode there” He leaned forward a little and pointed a girl on a table across the room. “I don’t how she managed it with just a plant root alone but our cauldron’s melting right now.”</p><p>   “Oh?” Harry said still wondering what Damian was doing there.</p><p>   “Do you mind If I-” he indicated sitting down.</p><p>   “Yeah, um-sure” Harry turned to Malfoy. “He has already done half your work; can you stop wasting time now?”</p><p>Damian seemed to have observed the exchange but his expressions stayed pleasant. “Harry, right?”</p><p>Harry gestured with his hands to communicate ‘yeah basically’. He was much politer than he had been with Malfoy however.</p><p>   “I know you are probably thinking I am here for an autograph or something and I would surely ask for one but see, I want to ask you about my uncle, Sirius Black? You knew him, right?”</p><p>Harry was suddenly reminded of his godfather, before memories would pour into his brain, he decided not to think about it right now. “Your Uncle?” Harry asked still registering the question. “I didn’t know he had a nephew”</p><p>   “Yeah he didn’t either.” Damian’s smile turned wistful. “I am Regulus’s son—adopted son. He married my mother shortly before joining the death eaters and was dead before I was born. Sirius had left the house by then so I never really got the chance to meet him.”</p><p>   “Oh”</p><p>   “My mom used talk about him all the time though, she’d hoped someday my dad would realize he is wrong and be more like him. From what I have heard he did come around but it was too late.”</p><p>   “No, we—if he hadn’t hidden Voldemort’s locket away, we would have a much harder time defeating him.” Harry offered a defense, still mostly trying to register what was happening.</p><p>   “Oh well, Was Sirius really your godfather?” Damian asked, voice almost dreamy.</p><p>   “—Yes.”</p><p>   Damian cast his eyes down. “He must have love you then.”</p><p>   “I mean we barely got to spend any time together.” Harry frowned, recalling. “I knew him to be a criminal who was complicit in my parent’s murder for most of my life and afterwards when he was proven innocent, he had to stay in hiding.”</p><p>   “And then Aunt Bella…”</p><p>   “Yeah”</p><p>   “I really wish I had met him once you know. My mom never wanted me to be like my dad or my Aunts. She moved countries, she sent me to Ilvermorny, all just so I could stay away from them.</p><p>   You know even if I never met him, he was still the only person in my family I could look up to.”       </p><p>Harry too felt his throat hurt bitterly but he managed not to tear up. Not a feeling that reached his brain however, his body seemed to feel even if he himself couldn’t. Harry sighed and searched for appropriate words.</p><p>   “Hey” Damian started, catching his expression. “I am sorry if you weren’t ready to talk about him yet, I shouldn’t be so impatient.” </p><p>   “Oh no please. I know how you feel Damian.” He said halfheartedly. “As far as my family goes, he was only one alive who cared”</p><p>Damian nodded sympathetically. “So…do you live in Grimmauld Place then?”</p><p>   “I did for a while in the summer break, yeah but you were supposed to inherit it, right? If you stil want it—”</p><p>   “Grimmauld Place is yours Harry, Sirius wanted you to have it. Besides my family already left me way too many properties to deal with.”</p><p>   “Wait, so the ministry isn’t seizing property?”</p><p>   “It is. It only confiscates property from convicted Death Eaters.” Damian shrugged. “Which would be most of family so as the only noncriminal in the family, I inherited all of it” He didn’t sound all that enthusiastic about it.</p><p>Harry briefly eyed Malfoy, his family had been convicted and he himself was on trial. Had he actually been staying in a holding cell then?</p><p>   “Is your mum still in the States?”</p><p>   “She passed away a few years ago”</p><p>   “I am sorry.”</p><p>   “Oh no please. I was hoping, Harry, you could maybe show me around Grimmauld place, I have heard Sirius left some old journals, my parents had stuff lying around, I just wanted to see where he lived…if that’s fine with you”</p><p>   “Sure,” Harry nodded fumbling for his crunched-up schedule sheet, he flattened it out, grinning apologetically. Damian returned it warmly and shook his head to indicate that it alright.  “How about tomorrow, I don’t have any classes after twelve in the afternoon?”</p><p>   “Hmm, I have Astronomy at one but I am sure Professor Sinistra will understand.” Just then the Bloody Baron poured through the classroom wall sneering at anyone who caught his eye. Damian frowned. “Nice”</p><p>   “No ghosts and Ilvermorny?”</p><p>   “Nah”</p><p>Both of them looked in his general direction as he floated over to Slughorn, surreptitiously whispering at him. Slughorn followed with a few questions, inaudible from where they sat and then nodded in understandind. </p><p>   “Mr. Malfoy, Headmistress McGonagall has called you to her office, please report to it immediately”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Trial</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Malfoy’s face bore a tense impression, but it was gone before anyone</p>
<p>registered it. He dragged his satchel off the side of the table and went outside casually.</p>
<p>   “What do you think he’s done?” Damian asked watching the blond leave.  </p>
<p>Harry shrugged. “It’s Malfoy. He has a habit of getting in trouble.” It wasn’t exactly true. While they had both been sent to the office before, after getting into scuffles, Malfoy, for most part, had maintained a good record.</p>
<p>   “I hope it isn’t related to the ministry.” Damian pondered.</p>
<p>   “Ministry?” Harry turned to him.</p>
<p>   “Yeah, I have some contacts who told me that Malfoy had been frequenting at the ministry building for his trial, maybe spent some days there too.” So the manor had probably been seized.  “You think it’s because of Eduardo?”</p>
<p>   “He has come to have a lot of influence around the place, Percy supports him and Kingsley doesn’t betray his people. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is behind all this.” Harry explained wondering if Malfoy had been in a holding cell now that Manor was ministry’s property. The Aurors had free reign around there, the incidences that made it to the newspaper alone were abhorrent, Azkaban was ever worse.</p>
<p>Now that he knew that Malfoy was acquitted with the system, he couldn’t help imagining the treatment he might have received. The blood supremacists <em>were</em> after all on the receiving end of the mistreatment this time.</p>
<p>   “Should I help him maybe” Damian asked. “He is still my cousin.”</p>
<p>   “I wouldn’t suggest it. They are not giving you any trouble because you don’t not have any connection with the death eaters, don’t get them suspicious now.”  Harry told him.</p>
<p>   “You two are not really friends.” Damian concluded, observing from his reaction.</p>
<p>Harry huffed. “Opposite sides of war, and he is a Slytherin.”  And they were rivals since childhood, but ‘rivals’ sounded too dramatic after the war. And it didn’t matter now. All of that was far behind.</p>
<p>   “Hmm seems like you will have to make do with Slytherin for now.” Damian pouted.</p>
<p>   “What-oh right.” Damian was a Slytherin too. “Well, you basically made this and I don’t think Malfoy is coming back before class. Say we show this to Slughorn and take it to the astronomy tower?”</p>
<p>Damian looked back at Bulstrode, she was scaping the molten cauldron off the table while Adrian, whom she had elected to help her hopelessly trying to restore its form.</p>
<p>   “—Yeah” He decided. “We should do that.”</p>
<p>Slughorn was hunched over the desk grading a pile of assignments. He turned to them as they approached, took a brief look at the cauldron and hummed in approval. “Accurate grain size and well timed.” He remarked nodding his head.</p>
<p>   “Harry knows his potions.” Damian said smiling at him.</p>
<p>   “of course, of course.” Slughorn seemed to believe that. Harry lowered his head and smiled. They left class with him carrying the cauldron. “So how do you like Hogwarts?”</p>
<p>   “It’s very nice actually, the people are almost too kind”</p>
<p>   “Nah, you are just American.”</p>
<p>Damian laughed heartily. “I was told I was gonna get this”</p>
<p> “Harry!” Ron called his named from behind. When Harry turned around to respond, he ran up to them, briefly looking at Damian and then said to Harry. “You weren’t in class; McGonagall is looking for you.”</p>
<p>   Harry frowned. “Why?”</p>
<p>   “I don’t know, but I saw Dawlish and Meredith in the Headmistress’s tower.”</p>
<p>   Harry raised an eyebrow. “From Eduardo’s wing?”</p>
<p>   “Yeah.”</p>
<p>Harry turned to Damian, about to excuse himself but he spoke first.  “I got this.” Damian said and took the cauldron from him. “Come to the Astronomy tower tomorrow after school, it should be ready by then.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>   “What do you think happened?” Harry asked Ron as they began to walk together.</p>
<p>   “No idea mate, I was going to Charms when Professor McGonagall, thought it was the missing assignment but instead, there were Aurors in there and Malfoy looked like he was crying”</p>
<p>   “This better not be about it.” Harry groaned.</p>
<p>They went to the headmistress’s office expecting all kinds of things but mostly hoping a professor had complained about his academic performance or something similarly mundane and the Malfoy thing coincidently happened to be going on as well. He didn’t want to be involved with him or the ministry. Especially not while he had this other problem to deal with.</p>
<p>When they entered, Professor McGonagall stood alone in front of her desk, no sign of the Aurors or Malfoy.</p>
<p>   “Weasley, you may leave.” She said curtly and stood up from the desk. It was much emptier, neater looking, now that it belonged to her. The whole office had a hint of that. McGonagall had made it functional but not personal and something about that made Harry forlorn.</p>
<p>Ron nodded, gave Harry a sympathetic look and then he was gone. “Please take a seat Harry.” She said, her demeaner less formal now, worry however was also pretty obvious in her voice. He went over to the window, head turned back to Harry but he couldn’t entirely see her expression.</p>
<p>That was probably deliberate.</p>
<p>Harry inwardly smiled at the special treatment. The woman had always been so private that he liked the fondness she showed him. But he knew it had to come with a cost. It wouldn’t usually bother him, but Malfoy had just left the office with Aurors.</p>
<p>   “What is it professor?” He asked, sitting down but turning the chair to face her.</p>
<p>   “Someone” She began and sighed. “has reported that Malfoy repaired the vanishing cabinet to allow the death eaters to enter Hogwarts.”</p>
<p>   “How did they not find out before?”</p>
<p>Professor McGonagall looked down at Harry. “Albus told me to remove it from the Room of Requirement to save Malfoy.”</p>
<p>Of course, Dumbledore believed in minimum damage. Harry of course was the necessary sacrifice, for the greater good. <em>Of course</em>. </p>
<p>   Harry found it unfair but somehow did not find himself indignant. Dumbledore was just man, albeit a fascinating one, and he had made some very tough decisions. </p>
<p>   “So now they have concrete evidence to use against Malfoy in his trial.” He concluded. It was now that the professor gave a judgmental look.</p>
<p>   “And because it appears that he had a much more active role in the assassination attempt on Dumbledore, his bail has been reappealed. They have taken him to a holding cell right now and his first court session is tomorrow. They will most likely move him to Azkaban now that he is a legal adult.”</p>
<p>Harry nodded thoughtfully. </p>
<p>   “We cannot let him stay there Harry.” She finally spelled out for him, a hint of annoyance in her tone.</p>
<p>   “I mean he was actively involved in a murder conspiracy and the court knows.” He reasoned. “I don’t see what anyone can do for him.”</p>
<p>‘Anyone’ was a deliberate choice of words. Even if the Professor was going to guilt him into joining her saving mission, which he wasn’t entirely sure he would agree too, he still wasn’t going to bring it upon himself.</p>
<p>   “Harry, he did not have a choice” She said, almost frantically. “Voldemort practically lived in his house; he couldn’t have just refused him. And Severus carried out the—the ordeal because we all knew that Malfoy would not do it. Albus was so sure about it, he had made it part of the plan.”</p>
<p>   “He chickened out of a murder, sure that’s Malfoy.” Harry said flicking his wrist. “He also willingly joined the death eaters long before Voldemort moved into the Malfoy manor. And he was a blood supremacist before that. You don’t actually believe he is innocent, do you?”</p>
<p>  “He was a snotty rich bigot.” She said, saying the words solely to convey that she understood how Harry felt about him. Nonetheless it sounded very alien. “But he is not what the rest of them were, you fought them, they killed your friends Harry, you think Malfoy isn’t any different from them?”</p>
<p>   “I fought them and they killed my friends because <em>Malfoy</em> let them into the school.” He said, voice low and emotionless, how he truly felt at the moment.</p>
<p>   “You know he was born into this, Harry, <em>you know </em>how that is, better than anyone.”</p>
<p>   “And so was Sirius but he didn’t call my friend a mudblood and let me remind you, that was before Voldemort was even known to be alive.” He said and stood up to leave.</p>
<p>   “Harry!” She yelled after him angrily. He startled a little and turned around to find her stomping up to him. “He is your age, when he gets out, you will probably be married. And he will stay there with real murderer-I don’t even know if I am talking about the death eaters or the Aurors-and no one will save him from them. By the time you enter that Auror department and see for yourself what they have been doing with these people, Malfoy would have either completely lost it or actually become just like them.</p>
<p><em>He is a just a boy, Harry</em>” She gnashed her teeth. “And he has done nothing to deserve this.”</p>
<p>Harry knew he didn’t have a choice then. If he was just himself right now, he would not be able to walk away from this. Then again, he probably wouldn’t object to helping Malfoy in the first place. </p>
<p>   He sighed helplessly. “I want to get over this.”</p>
<p>   “Then help me finish it. For everyone.” She said, calm now.</p>
<p>Harry closed his eyes and pursed his lips. “What do I have to do?”</p>
<p>Professor McGonagall spent a minute righting herself, back to not giving away how she felt. She went back to her seat and Harry moved his chair again.</p>
<p>“First we should visit him so that the Aurors know to keep their distance. Then we put together cases of Death eaters who Voldemort tortured or killed for not complying with him to show what conditions Malfoy was under when he did their bidding. And you can vouch for him, say that you saved his life. I will try to mention his academic record as a reason to let him stay in the school.”</p>
<p>   “Yeah, and he uh, saved my life too once.” He mentioned reluctantly. He didn’t want the court to know that, the media even less but he knew it would help close the case more quickly.</p>
<p> He could already see the tabloids twisting it into something hilariously off the mark. He physically cringed when he remembered the way him coming out as bisexual had gone. Now they would probably add Malfoy in the list of boys they speculated he was shagging. It would be like Romeo and Juliet. Harry rolled his eyes, already feeling sick.</p>
<p>Professor McGonagall lit up at that. “When?”</p>
<p>  “The death eaters took us to the Malfoy Manor; Hermione fired a stinging jinx at me so the death eaters wouldn’t identify me and the they couldn’t risk taking a fake at Voldemort.” He shrugged when he realized the incident was a case for both of the defenses the professor had suggested.           “They asked Malfoy to identify me. He knew it was me but he kept his mouth shut anyway.”</p>
<p>   “Then it’s done Harry, we can save him!”</p>
<p>   “Yes great, we can, can I please go now?” Harry feigned enthusiasm to match her genuine excitement and stood up.</p>
<p>She heaved a sigh, mostly in relief and nodded. Harry was immediately apologetic for his behavior. “I am sorry Professor. I just- I was hoping I could leave all this behind me now.”</p>
<p>She smiled at him wistfully. “I know. Its fine.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Ron had been furious; Hermione had insisted that Harry help Malfoy and then they had bickered. And now he sat in formal black robes, smaller square framed glasses and hairs combed down with excruciating effort, outside the conference room where the criminals met their defenses.  </p>
<p>Professor McGonagall was talking to Malfoy. Harry watched them from the one-sided mirror, himself seated on a chair at the opposite wall.</p>
<p>From the look of it, Malfoy was calmly listening, nodded when required and asking for clarification here and there. He turned to him once, not able to see him and then turned back again, Professor McGonagall seemed terse as ever but determined.</p>
<p>Harry untied him arms and sat up straight when she came out “You should go talk to him, make sure you are both on the same page.” she said.</p>
<p>Harry stood up, suppressing his urge to decline and went inside. Malfoy who was sat at the table, plane brown robes. His expressions…quaint.</p>
<p>   “No physical contact and no exchanging objects.” The woman at the door said.</p>
<p>   “Finish the floo powder?” Malfoy asked pleasantly. If Harry hadn’t known better, he would genuinely think that Malfoy was inquiring about it.</p>
<p>   “Damian completed it.” He told him and sat down on the opposite side, facing him the way they had been in class just a day ago and suddenly it was all very out of the ordinary. The strangest part was that he could now understand why Malfoy would had chosen not to pick a fight him earlier. It wasn’t worth risking it for this. While not regretful (sigh) Harry did admit that he was in very new territory and he couldn’t make his decisions based on his personal feelings about wanting to ‘get over it.”</p>
<p>   “I assume Professor McGonagall has explained everything to you. Tell the Jury, how bad Voldemort was and you had no choice blah blah blah. And I will say that you saved me and it was totally not because you are a coward and hopefully, they will let you go and I can get back to class.” Harry said as if he had rehearsed the lines. He had wanted to sound less freaked out than he was not insensitive but that’s how he ended up coming across.</p>
<p>   “I didn’t do it because I am a coward. I didn’t anyone to die.” He said, so uncharacteristic that Harry was weirded out. Why was everyone doing that?</p>
<p>   “Tell that to the jury Malfoy, I am not the one who needs to have pity on you.” Even Malfoy knew that their rivalry was a childish little thing in the middle of this. But something had to have happened for Malfoy to have come to the realization. “Is it true…what they are saying about the Aurors abusing the criminals?”</p>
<p>   “I hope you are not a visual learner because they will probably not let me take my robe off.”</p>
<p>   “I don’t need to see anything.” Tell Harry’s brain that, because he was already speculating what would have happened, he felt emotions charge back into him. For a moment he was lost.</p>
<p>   “Don’t take the wrong hint Potter, I wasn’t going to show you anything you would have liked.” Malfoy said snapping Harry out of his thoughts. “Unless you are into that kind of a thing.”</p>
<p>   “Fuck off.” Harry stood up hastily. “I think you know enough to handle yourself in front of the jury.” </p>
<p>He headed outside; Draco raised a hand to stop him but Harry had to leave.</p>
<p>Malfoy wouldn’t have wanted to offend someone his life depended on but that was the least of Harry’s concerned right now.</p>
<p>He ran towards the bathrooms, dashing over the dull grey tiles of the ministry floor and only let himself stop when he was inside the cubicle. His chest moved up and down, chemicals shooting towards his brain, he felt a distant ringing in his ears, a small voice, too echoic for him to understand anything but that was all he heard as dropped down to his knees not trusting his legs anymore and let himself feel it all over. He didn’t quiet have to imagine anything happening to Malfoy, the thought was entrancing on its own, the mere knowing of the occurrence of them making butterflies flutter in his stomach.</p>
<p>And then slowly they died down and Harry was empty again and voices rung hollow in his ears. The mundane chatter of life around him slowly reintroducing itself.</p>
<p>Harry leaned his head back against the cubicle door, not coherently able to grieve his problem just yet but the it settled low inside himself, another <em>tiring </em>problem for him to deal with. It wasn’t quite the constant threat of death that Voldemort possessed once but it was somehow like being diagnosed with a terminal disease. It had gotten worse and it was keep going. He had to convince Hermione that things were bad. And for that he had to admit it, and worry about it. And all of it was <em>just so tiring.</em></p>
<p>Harry could cry. Footsteps and conversations surrounded him once again. He stood up, shoving all his complaints down, went outside and corrected himself before the bathroom mirror.</p>
<p>   He was somewhat hesitant to go before a jury, he shouldn’t have been because they all admired him. He had a kind of power around the ministry, Kingsley’s reassurances of support and the knowing smile he had given Harry when he mentioned that he would like to stay out of politics, all had a verry different affect now.</p>
<p>   “Sorry, I had to use the loo.” He said descending the stairs to the dungeon.</p>
<p>   “Be quick now.” McGonagall said, herself dressed in formal black robes and a hat.  They entered the pentagonal shaped room with upholstered grey walls and a very high ceiling. Harry looked up at the Chief Warlock, for a fringe of time, expecting Dumbledore to be looking down at him but instead it was a pointy chinned, redhaired woman.</p>
<p>Remembering Dumbledore still made him feel better. Harry was fulfilling a task that he had left professor McGonagall. And he ran things correctly.</p>
<p>Harry took a long breath and seated himself on the cold cement bench that ran the length of the wall.</p>
<p>Malfoy was brought in accompanied by two Aurors and bound to the chair at the center of the room. The prosecutor announced his crimes and the trial began. Because the benches were quiet high, he was able to look down at Malfoy under the jury’s scrutiny. Their apathetic faces but the apathy was judgement all the same.</p>
<p>Malfoy spoke for himself, a very convincing actor. He didn’t care that someone who knew him would find it awfully strange. Sometimes Professor McGonagall took his place, respectfully answering the jury’s questions and never acting combative. </p>
<p>By the time Harry was called before them, he felt confidence in himself, only he didn’t not have a prison sentence looming on his head and without those conditions, speaking favorably for Malfoy in front of him came much harder.</p>
<p>In the end, he did not sugar coat much and took the honest route. ‘Sure, Malfoy wasn’t the best person, but he himself, had been in very tough positions, and he couldn’t truly fathom what it must have been like for Voldemort to have bestowed him with a task. There were obviously no negotiations, if there was a promise of a reward, it was sparing him from a painful death.’ He then narrated the event at the manor when he was taken by the snatchers. ‘That was Malfoy when he did not have to choose between harming someone and dying. And it wasn’t to say that the risk was small. It was brave on his part and he deserved a chance to make things right, to have control in his life so he could make better use of it.’</p>
<p>And fair enough, the honesty worked its charm. Some time and a few more speeches later, the jury consulted among themselves and announced that Malfoy was not going to Azkaban.</p>
<p>Malfoy’s eyes shot up hopefully.</p>
<p>But-and obviously there was a but-the manor was not going to be returned because it belonged to Narcissa Malfoy now and she was a fugitive. And Malfoy could go to school but until an Auror had surveilled him for a specific period of time and given him and ‘all clear’, he had to stay off the premises when school hours were over.</p>
<p>The court was adjourned.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Professor McGonagall paced the room. Harry sat on the bench watching only as interested as he was in the snack he had picked from the cafeteria.</p>
<p>  “Obviously they didn’t send him to Azkaban because they didn’t want to contradict you. But they have still indirectly sentenced Malfoy. They will most certainly assign him an Auror that will never clear him and because he has no place to go, we will have to stay in a holding facility for Merlin knows how long.”</p>
<p>   “We tried.” Harry offered, futilely.</p>
<p>McGonagall stopped and looked at him. “Harry, haven’t you worked with the Auror department before?”</p>
<p>Harry sprung to his feet. “No, no, no, no.” Harry shook his head. “You are not going to ask me for this and if you do, I am going to refuse, I’ve already done more than I was willing to but I am not going to spend one semester I can take normally, babysitting Malfoy. This is unnegotiable.”</p>
<p>Professor McGonagall hung her head defeatedly. “I understand.”</p>
<p>Harry did feel uncomfortable but he didn’t have anything to offer. It would be a spectacle for the tabloid. He would have to stay away from friends and rivalries forgotten or not-he was not going to live with Malfoy-</p>
<p>   “I am sorry.” He said and they went back to Hogwarts.</p>
<p>Harry welcomed the sight of the golden much warmer looking walls of the castle and the familiar sight of the forest wood. Hermione and Ron stood outside the castle gates leaping at him when they materialized and bombarded him with questions.</p>
<p>   “All three of you, inside.”</p>
<p>Professor said and walked inside. They followed soon taking their own route. Harry recollected everything with detail including the part where McGonagall had asked him to take up Malfoy’s surveillance job. (“What was she thinking!”-Ron). Hermione had her concerns about Malfoy but she was entirely understanding of Harry refusing the task.</p>
<p>Harry did not get a chance to speak to Hermione alone but he resolved to tell her what had happened candidly, difficult as it was, in the arithmancy class they had together.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Malfoy lay on a single bed in the corner of a narrow room. It was barely a thick mat on a frame. The walls were grey like the ministry, dimly lit by a low hanging bulb. Malfoy appeared almost blue, more color in his hair than his skin. Somewhere far away, a wind howled.</p>
<p>And the door slide to the side with a sharp creaking noise and Malfoy whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut.</p>
<p>   “Get up y’ scum” A bitter voice ordered but someone was raising Malfoy up from his plain white shirt before he could respond. The person hurled him to the floor and Malfoy only caught his face from connecting with the bedframe.</p>
<p>The Auror made up for it by punching his cheek.</p>
<p>Harry was going to watch more but then the voice got too loud, the shrilly excited voice, and for a brief moment harry thought he saw a child, blue like Malfoy but sizing him up rib to rib and eye to eye, but he was weightless. Like a ghost. And suddenly he was all Harry could see.</p>
<p>Harry shrieked and threw his arms to the side reaching for whatever he could find. He lifted up a lamp and began waving it above himself, his screams never stopping.</p>
<p>   “Harry?”</p>
<p>The voice only alarmed him more and his arm swerved in its direction, but someone was gripping it firmly, forcing him to stop jerking around. “Harry?!” It was Ron.</p>
<p>He opened his eyes and sat up, drawing his knees close and looking around at the dormitory. Most of the other boys has not slept yet. All had stopped dead is their tracks to watch him.</p>
<p>   “You…ok Harry?”  A boy asked when Harry caught his eye. He was still holding out his arm, a sheet hanging from his hands.</p>
<p>Harry took some time to register the question and then nodded, wrapping his arms around his knees and looking away.</p>
<p>   “What the hell man?” Ron asked pressing his palm on his forehead and clasping down his shoulder. Hermione. He needed Hermione.</p>
<p>Harry stayed unmoving for a minute.  </p>
<p>   “Time?” He asked.</p>
<p>   “What? Twelve O’ one. Are you going to tell me what just happened with you?”</p>
<p>He had to wait for tomorrow.</p>
<p>   “Harry!!” Ron nudged him.</p>
<p>Did he also have to tell Ron? If it came to it, then perhaps, but he felt no such necessity right now.</p>
<p>   “Tired man. Nightmares come back sometimes.”</p>
<p>   “Oh. Tell you Malfoy cursed you or something.” He muttered. “Or it’s the ministry’s affect. Awful place.” Harry placed his own hand over Ron’s to assure him that he was fine. His mind though was lost in entirely different thoughts. “Get some rest and try not to bash someone’s head in, hmm?”</p>
<p>Ron went to his own bed. Harry cast a privacy charm and turned off the light. They should have sneaked in phones but Hermione was back to not breaking rules anymore.</p>
<p>Well now it was time to break rules again.</p>
<p>Harry lay back and an image of Voldemort came before him like he was standing above him but he only saw him up to his shoulders and he was large, so much that Harry could see nothing else.</p>
<p>It did not scare Harry the same way however, because he was mostly conscious of conjuring it up.</p>
<p>He had almost hurt Ron. His mind threatened to play that back to him for different purposes but he quieted it down. He was almost detached to it somehow. Like a stranger in his head with some control.</p>
<p>…Control he was slowly losing.</p>
<p>And yet his first instinct was to rewind it in his head, he didn’t care that he looked like a moron, that everyone looked at him like he was crazy. All of that felt like watching someone he had possessed and did not care about the reputation of.</p>
<p>He was only concerned about the part where he had struck Ron with a lamp. Almost that was.</p>
<p>Harry realized that despite his attempt to stop, he had slipped into visualizing it. He looked at his friend lying some beds away and felt a pang of guilt, like he was often able to feel once he had imagined for a while.</p>
<p>He switched to the other side and pulled the cover above his face. He should try the dreamless sleep potion. Maybe it would block out his self-procured daydreams as well.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>After three exhaustingly long lessons that he attended only half alert. (George had not been happy about it but ‘I went to court for Malfoy’ did make him skip assigning homework)</p>
<p>Finally, it was Arithmancy class. Harry waited as the bulky structure of the stairs slowly connected to the third floor and then headed up them and entered the serpentine corridor.</p>
<p>He was deciding whether to mention Malfoy’s lewd remarks or not lest Hermione think that his breakdown had anything to with it when the blond ran up to him.</p>
<p>   “Are you following me?” Harry questioned stepping back from him a little.</p>
<p>   “We need to talk Potter” Malfoy said panting slightly.</p>
<p>   “I have a class” Harry was about to move on but Malfoy blocked his way once more.</p>
<p>   “Please Potter, you have to help me.” He pleased, no hesitation at all.</p>
<p>   “tsk Malfoy, one would think you have more self-respect than that.” Harry said and walked on this time.</p>
<p>   “Its one of Eduardo’s men.” Malfoy said. Harry stopped but did not turn around. “He hates me, he is the one who used to deal with me in the holding cell. Potter you can’t leave me with him.”</p>
<p>   “Why?” Harry asked. Beguiled like before but the single word question did not give it away.</p>
<p>   “He-” Malfoy’s ego at last kicked in. When he spoke again, there was disdain in his voice. “beat me to pulp, starved me, treated me like some kind of a punching bag and they never did anything about it. I am not making this up Potter, you can see for yourself if you want but for fuck’s sake don’t leave me with him.”</p>
<p>The plea barely made it to Harry’s years. He was locked in his place. There was pale skin, vaguely present <em>somewhere </em>but Harry could not place it and didn’t have the mind to. Deafening reverberance spread in his ears glitching with the sounds of a small child, laughing. It was the voice from before, only comparatively clearer now. But his brain had entirely shut down,</p>
<p>Harry stiffly turned around, like a statue awoken from slumber. There was a scream, very, very far away from him and then he was alone in the hallway.</p>
<p>“Harry? Harry!” Someone was saying. Next moment, he could see Hermione.</p>
<p> A corridor full of students stared very closely at him, Professor Vector with her fists interlocked and a worried look on her face, some disturbed, some cautious. McGonagall stared blankly, George on his side holding his hand and his friends calling at him what he finally understood to be his own name.</p>
<p>Malfoy was next to McGonagall and had seeming called her there. His eyes bulged at his face searching for something before he decided that things were back to normal.</p>
<p>   “What happened?” Harry asked, his voice somewhat thin.</p>
<p>   “Oh, thank god he is alive” Ron exclaimed. Hermione also looked relieved.</p>
<p>   “you have been standing here for some ten minutes not moving at all” She told him.</p>
<p>He moved a muscle in his leg, it wasn’t seamless like it would have been had he been functioning normally.</p>
<p>   “We tried everything, even slapped you once but you just wouldn’t move for god’s sake. Are you okay?!” Ron said.</p>
<p>   “I lost…track of time.” he said.</p>
<p>   “You two, take him to Madam Pomfrey, the rest of you back to class” Professor McGonagall said and the crowd began to disperse, people discussing the incidence as they left. “I will visit once you have taken some rest.”</p>
<p>Hermione and Ron took him to the infirmary. He settled on the bed and looked between his friends. Once calmed down, some expression came back to his face, thoughts back to his head.</p>
<p>Things were going very…very wrong.</p>
<p>Harry looked at Hermione pursing his teeth hoping she would understand. He tried his best to not give it away to Ron. She thankfully understood.</p>
<p>   “Ron, go find madam Pomfrey”</p>
<p>   “But Harry—”</p>
<p>   “I am with him, go” She stressed. Ron left, rolling his eyes.</p>
<p>   “What happened, Harry?” She asked sitting next to him on a stool.</p>
<p>Harry sat up a little, letting his back rest against the bed. He was sore from standing for so long.</p>
<p>  “I don’t know Hermione, Malfoy was talking about his time in the holding cell, asking me to not let him stay with the Auror and the things he described happened to him, they triggered something. I heard a voice too.” Harry fished his memory to recall the events but he was still rather blank. “And Voldemort…” His mind went back to the image from the night before. He didn’t have anything to say about it but mentioned it anyway to convey to Hermione that whatever happened was serious.</p>
<p>   “Voldemort?” Hermione exclaimed loudly. Sure enough, she leaned closer, raising her eyebrows.</p>
<p>   “What about him?” Someone joined in. Both Hermione and Harry’s shot in the direction of the door, expecting Ron. It was Damian.</p>
<p>   “Didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” he said, still seeming occupied with the mention of the dark lord. He was dressed in muggle clothes like he had come from outside. Not that Harry could be sure but he hadn’t seen him in the crowd.</p>
<p>“I heard what happened, thought I should come visit.” He explained. At least it wasn’t Ron. “So uh, hopefully Voldemort isn’t back,”</p>
<p>   “No, he isn’t.” Harry said. “At least no one else can see him.”  Harry said, not meaning to share but he was not at his vigilant right now.</p>
<p>Hermione grimaced at him.</p>
<p>   “It’s okay,” Damian said to Hermione. “Maybe I can help.”</p>
<p>Harry and Hermione shared a look. He had heard enough to get curious anyway. It was safer to take him in their trust than leave him to gossip about it.</p>
<p>   “Sure.” Harry said. “You probably know about the horcruxes, someone’s probably publishing a novel right now. Voldemort was supposed to have died when he tried to kill me, instead he killed a part of me that was actually him because he accidently made me a horcrux and didn’t know.” He summarized rather comically. “I don’t think that … part is entirely dead though.”</p>
<p>   “Oh” Damian decided to say, not seeming sure that he had signed up know this much.</p>
<p>   “Yeah.” Harry shook his head and snorted. The one person who did not treat him like some anomaly had changed his mind.</p>
<p>   “What do you mean you think he is not dead, Harry? This is serious.” Hermione stated leaning against his bed frame.</p>
<p>     “I still see him, well not exactly but its like glimpses, sounds that that feel like him, and they get triggered when I see or hear bad things.”</p>
<p>   “What bad things?” Damian asked approaching his bed</p>
<p>  . Harry looked at him pleadingly, trying his best to not alienate him.  “People dying, getting hurt.” He cast his eyes down in guilt. “Those kinds of things. Its like, he wants to make his presence known, because my brain is …like…constantly craving them.”</p>
<p>   “Whoa” Hermione was taken aback.</p>
<p>Damian surprising seemed more sensitive to Harry’s mental condition. If he was shocked or weirded out, he hid it well. Instead, there was sympathy on his face.</p>
<p>   “Are you better now?” He asked.</p>
<p>Harry looked at him, grateful almost and affirmed that he was.</p>
<p>  “It sounds like a soul bond.”</p>
<p> </p>
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